Retrieving a 59 Fairlane 500 convertible

Sounds familiar doesn't it..

Thanks!

 

Both of us aliases have been overdosing on a little candy apple red, lately

 

I just talked with our rep at the Radiator shop. He said he doesn't think we can get a core. His distributor is back east, so he won't know for 100% until then. But he's pretty sure.

I've checked out U.S. Radiator, they do look like a nice unit. But they are also way more expensive than the aluminum one that are available.

 

If you are not concerned about vintage under the hood, go with the Aluminum one.
You can always paint the thing black and that hides it a bit.

 

We've stayed original on this build for the most part. It isn't a resto mod or a sleeper. Just a cool cruiser. But a 3 or 4 core aluminum radiator can be had for $146.00 plus shipping while an accurate reproduction can be between $500 and $600 we might just go with the less expensive alternative.
We've talked briefly about it and the idea of painting an aluminum unit black did come up.
I have heard about folks painting radiators and getting too much paint on the fins and then they didn't cool properly.
We'll discuss it some more. I'll let you know what we come up with.

 

Flat black primer goes on thin. But, probably will be an eye sore. The Tanks can always get a little too much, without making a difference in cooling. Are the accurate reproductions built from scratch or do you need to send in your old one so they can use the tanks? It seems to me that the 5 to 6 hundred covers the time involved, more than material

 

We'll just have to see what my Father-in-law wants to do.

 

So, here's the latest:

Pulled it onto the shop to have one of our Mech's do a tune up and address any obvious issues.

As with every other thing on this car it has snow balled.



The radiator is not even the correct unit for this car. The previous owner notched the core support to get this one in there.






We thought it had an exhaust leak, so he inspected the manifolds. Turns out that a number of the studs are broken off in the heads. Soooo, heads are coming off.





At this point we are going to redo the entire top end, rewire from the fire wall forward (because it was a mess) and take care of all of the shade tree/jury rigged parts and pieces that remain.
We'll also take the opportunity to dress up the entire engine compartment.

That's how she sits as of today.

 

Snow balls can sneak up on you...



at least your project is moving.

 

Yeah, I would've pulled the engine, in order to put a fresh rear main seal and oil pan gaskets in, left the heads on to do the studs, and blasted the compartment clean. I need to do that to Babe, but, no extra money to wheel it to the car wash. I will be scraping the gunk, though.

 

And before you ask, yes, her engine and trans are out for re-sealing and seeing if the crank ended up offset from stock, to explain the big oil leak on the front main.

 

It's funny you mention that Andrew, our shop foreman keeps saying "you've gone this far, might as well yard the whole thing out." That may be what we end up doing.

 

You might as well. It isn't that much more work, at this point

 

I tend to agree. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

 

The fins on that transmission fluid cooler need to get combed out. Later models had the cooler integrated into the bottom radiator tank. The advantage being that the transmission would warm up to a constant operating temperatur, assuring smooth shifting regardless of external temperature. If you're not worried about deviating from 100% originality, you might want to consider this update, while you have easy access to it